Daily Check-In 9/18/2017

Monday. What could possibly happen on a Monday?

MANAFORT CAUGHT ON FISA WIRETAP. CONFIRMED BY CNN.

Months ago, Louise Mensch reported that Paul Manafort was under a FISA wiretap during the election. Someone else reported that he had one on him from 2014 for his dealings with Viktor Yanukovych smuggling money out of Ukraine.

Well, CNN reports that both claims are right.

Paul Manafort had TWO FISA warrants on him. One from 2014, and one in 2016 to 2017, before and after the election.

It gets worse. Guess who Paul had constant contact with, from the campaign through to his new job as President?

If you guessed Danny DeVito, what the fuck is wrong with you? Danny is a classy man who wouldn’t hang around with criminals like that.

If you guessed Donald Trump, you got it in one.

This is called incidental collection. If person A is under surveillance, and they talk with person B about some illegal stuff, they can both be in trouble.

If Chief Wiggum had a wiretap on Fat Tony, and Fat Tony met with Joe Quimby about destroying the nursing home and pocketing the cash, they’re both in legal jeopardy.

So, expect a line of everyone who talked to Paul Manafort to start in front Mueller’s office tomorrow.

MUELLER TELLS MANAFORT TO EXPECT AN INDICTMENT

No pressure. From The NYT, after Manafort was served with a no-knock midnight raid, Mueller told him to expect an indictment.

Ouch. If he wasn’t a treasonous piece of shit who profited off of human suffering and war crimes, I might almost feel bad him.

TWO LAWYERS GO TO A STEAK HOUSE FOR LUNCH, AND THE NEW YORK TIMES OVERHEARS

Some people were calling this the epitome of stupidity when Ty Cobb and Jon Dowd, lawyers for Donald Trump, had lunch Sunday at BLT Steak House, and discussed their case in the open. In particular, they discussed how White House Counsel McGahn was holding back, and how multiple people have likely flipped and are wearing wires.

Why was that stupid?

Because BLT Steak House is right next to the D.C. branch of the New York Times.

A restaurant that has a very high likelihood of multiple journalists hanging out there.

Think about that for a moment, and let me tell you why this was on purpose, and not as stupid as others make it out to be.

So, let’s say for a moment, that you’re a shady lawyer, having an argument with another lawyer, and their actions are directly hurting your client. You don’t trust anyone in the building, but you know it’s a high profile case, and you want to get the press to run your story. But, if you go directly to the press, you’ll get fired, disbarred, and who knows what else.

What do you do?

You go to where the journalists eat lunch. And you bring a co-worker, so you can talk about lunch, write it off, and expense it to your client, while the client still has money.

OTHER STORIES

Podesta meets with Senate Intelligence Committee.

Trumpcare rears its ugly head again.

Trump popularity dropping in Red States.

Momentum building against Gerrymandering.

“Without journalists, its just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Thank you, and have a good one.